When you have a productivity system in place, you also have a great deal of inertia. As with most things in life, this is both a blessing and curse. Habit energy will keep you using the system and depending on it to a degree that precludes doing nothing at all. Unfortunately, that same habit energy will ensure that you just put up with roadblocks to your productivity when there might be a better way.
I’m currently in the planning stages of switching my calendar system out of iCal and into something more analog and portable. I realized over the past week with Allyson’s family that I become completely unable to understand calendar dates when I’m away from my computer, and when my computer is off the Internet due to travel, I stop receiving my timely reminders as well. What I need is a system that travels with me in same way that my index cards and notebook travel with me.
I used a Palm m130 for over a year, but I grew to dislike the device. Once the “gee whiz” factor wore off, I realized that I didn’t really like looking at the little LCD screen and writing using cryptic alphabets that only PDAs and PDA users understand. I stopped using the Palm for anything other than Mahjong, and when the batteries ran out, I just put it quietly in a gadgets bin in my closet.
When it comes to organizing my life, I have to use the most basic technology that I can get away with. I tinker with my next action and project lists so often that I have to be able to electronically edit them and print them for travel. Plain text with Vim has been the perfect answer for this. I’ve been using iCal as a combination calendar and tickler, but it has too many pretty buttons and options for me to play with instead of actually using it to do my work. I lose many productive hours putting nonsense reminders into iCal instead of just developing the fundamental GTD habit of checking my calendar. When technology is involved, my absurdly geeky nature takes over and compels me to do things simply because I can.
Finding the right planner will inevitably be something of a chore. All I really want is a planner roughly A4 or Letter size with a binding that enables it to lay flat. Ideally, I would be able to see the entirety of the current week at a glance. I don’t care about task lists. That’s what my next action lists are for. I don’t care about weekly goals. I just want to keep track of my appointments as cleanly and simply as possible. I also refuse to buy anything made out of leather. The planner companies seem to produce models that fall into one of two basic categories. Either they have something simple that’s so cheap that it refuses to be used happily, or they sell a souped up executive model with pages I don’t want with a cow skin cover. Neither of these things works for me.
Next action: Look at possible planners at an office supply store.
Technorati Tags: Productivity, GTD, Calendar
